The Hidden Ones surprised me.

Before getting an invite to a media preview for the arena fighter, I had never even heard of it. As it turns out, it’s based on the Chinese martial arts franchise The Outcast, which includes a massively popular web comic, live-action series and Crunchyroll anime. A combination of my unfamiliarity with that media series and my general apprehension towards mobile games meant that I went into the preview not really knowing what to expect. But lo and behold, I found myself really digging the experience.

First and foremost, The Hidden Ones, which is being developed by Tencent-owned Morefun Studios, features some pleasingly tight and fluid fighting mechanics. On top of your basic melee combos, you have special moves that operate on a cooldown and a block mechanic that turns into a parry, depending on your timing. None of it is necessarily novel for a fighting game, but on mobile, it’s undeniably impressive. I was particularly impressed with the back-and-forth rhythm of only blocking when the opponent is using a special, as standard combos will allow the enemy to throw you when your guard is up. It means that even lesser experienced players like me are still challenged to emphasize timing instead of just spamming the block, especially where the flashy ‘Ultimate Skill’ super moves are concerned.

The variety of each “Outcast” fighter — of which there were nine in the demo — is also commendable. One character named Wang Ye, who was effectively the focus of the preview, has a rather basic moveset that focuses on kicks and an Avatar: The Last Airbender-esque “rockbending” move. Others, however, are more elemental, like a guy who commands an electrified dragon spirit, another who wields various flame abilities and an older, suited gentleman who attacks like a feral werewolf. You can also equip ‘Doppelgangers’ that effectively summon astral forms of characters to ensnare enemies with ropes, throw poison darts at them or keep them at bay with fire, among other uses. These moves, which operate on a cooldown, provide a handy “ace in the hole” to either interrupt an enemy combo or continue one of your own in a pinch.

That said, there are already some balancing issues, with the knife-wielding Feng Bao-Bao feeling especially overpowered thanks to her rapid attacks and abilities that allow for seamless combo stringing. Other media I played with also echoed these sentiments, so hopefully, Feng Bao-Bao gets a nerf. I will also say that the designs for some of the characters feel rather basic and even boring, like Wang Ye literally just wearing a yellow shirt and shorts or Feng Bao-Bao sporting plain blue overalls. Given the big anime inspirations, I was hoping for more outlandish designs that match the over-the-top freneticism of the combat itself. As is often the case with pre-release mobile games, Morefun wouldn’t yet comment on monetization, so it’s easy to see how all sorts of colourful skins, especially drawing from the larger The Outcast franchise, might make up for this.

Of course, that’s more or less what you’d expect from a mobile game, so that’s not inherently bad, and Morefun did suggest that all playable characters won’t be paywalled, which is certainly good. However, I do still have concerns about how the story mode may or may not also be monetized. That’s because the campaign features a limited revive system, which could easily be locked behind a premium currency (i.e. pay up for more revives or wait x number of real-time hours).

Hopefully that’s not the case, because the campaign otherwise proved fairly promising. First, Morefun says you don’t need to know the other Outcast media to enjoy The Hidden Ones, although I’ll have to take it at its word there since the demo dropped us into a later chapter with little introduction for anything. What I did gather is that Wang Ye needs the assistance of an old master who he is quickly framed for murdering, leading to a chase through a Chinese temple, several intermittent brawls and a climactic boss fight.

Above all else, I appreciated having NPC goons to take on as I’m not the best fighting game player and got beaten in most of my 1v1 human fights. While the enemy types were pretty repetitive, it scratches a Sleeping Dogs-esque itch, especially as I picked up their clubs to wail on them. The concluding boss encounter was also impressive, featuring a challenging, sultry foe who introduced deadly new moves between phases, including a giant snake that I had to avoid. Morefun could have easily just had you fighting other playable characters without any changes, so I loved having an actual setpiece involving the snake.

All in all, I came away with a lot of optimism for The Hidden Ones. Morefun looks to have adapted a popular Chinese franchise in a way that is approachable for all audiences yet still having hidden mechanical depth. On top of that, a story campaign promises to offer even more variety in between the 1v1 arena battles. While questions still remain about balancing and monetization, this was a solid demo all around, and I’m looking forward to seeing more.

A pre-alpha test for The Hidden Ones will begin on January 7th, 2025 — you can pre-register here. A closed beta test will follow in March ahead of a planned Q3 2025 global launch on Android, iOS and PC.

Image credit: Tencent